


The Most Powerful Thing in the World

by velvetcadence



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Falling In Love, M/M, Self-Acceptance, Teenagers, True Love, modern fairytale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-06
Updated: 2014-12-06
Packaged: 2018-02-28 09:01:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2726543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/velvetcadence/pseuds/velvetcadence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charles has been cursed with a pig's nose, and only true love can break the spell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Most Powerful Thing in the World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shigai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shigai/gifts).



> For the prompt: "modern fairy tale, something like the Penelope movie? Charles is cursed somehow, and Erik is the one to break the curse"
> 
> Charles' curse is a pig-nose as in Penelope. Erik's was taken from the anime Fruits Basket, where descendants of a certain family are cursed and turn into animals when they are touched by the opposite sex.
> 
> Thank you for the prompt, Shigai! I had a wonderful time pinch hitting. I hope you enjoy!

Emma Frost’s manicure looked deadly against her wine glass. Charles slowly let his gaze drift away even as he could feel her looking at him, her mouth lined with crimson precision.

“Well? Your birthday is coming soon.”

“I know.”

She sighed and rudely draped her long legs over the arm of the chair. “Poor, poor little Charles. All these years and not a single soul who loves you?”

“Evidently.”

The grandfather clock chimed twelve times. Emma licked her lips and delicately sipped at her glass. “Tick tock, tick tock. You’re running out of time, little mouse.”

Charles ignored the sound of her fingers drumming against the table and diligently placed his books back in the shelf. “I don’t even see why I should bother anymore.”

“Oh? But where would the fun in that be?” Emma laughed. “Silly little boy.”

“Yes, of course,” Charles said, beginning to lose his temper, “Who better than the Wicked Witch of Westchester to—” He stopped short, rolling his eyes when he realized that he was alone in the room again, and the only evidence Emma left in her wake was a snowflake that melted on his fingers when he held it up to the light.

* * *

 

In school, Raven was holding hands with Hank. She was beaming, her grin large enough to reveal her gleaming pixie teeth. Hank was a little more subdued in his affection, but he looked smitten and rather pleased at her attention. Seeing them together made something in Charles’ chest twinge.

“I suppose congratulations are in order.”

“Hank finally asked me out last night,” she winked.

“Good for you, Hank,” Charles smiled, patting him proudly on the shoulder. “I knew you could do it.”

“Thanks, Charles.”

“I guess I’ll see you both at lunch,” Charles said, gesturing to his locker. They waved at him and immediately became wrapped up in their own bubble once more. Charles bit his lip and turned, only to walk into Erik.

“Hey!”

“I’m so sorry!”

“Oh, Charles,” Erik said, steadying him with hands on his shoulders. He adjusted the strap on his backpack and looked incredibly handsome doing so.

“Er, good morning.”

“Morning.” Erik smiled, heedless of the traffic of students eddying around them. “How was your weekend?”

“Fine, I suppose. Yours?”

“Could have been better. You should have come with me to the concert.”

Charles bit his lip and fiddled with the his surgical mask, casually covering even more of his face so Erik wouldn’t see his blush. “You know I’m...sickly. I wouldn’t have fit in with that crowd anyway.”

“What are you talking about, of course you would have. You’d have been with me.” Erik steered Charles to his locker by the elbow, and his leather gloves felt cool to the touch. It made the hair on Charles' arm rise.

“Maybe next time?”

“I have my guitar today. Maybe I could play a song for you later. It won’t be as good as the concert, but hey, it’ll be something.”

Charles wanted to say that he was going to be with Raven and Hank as usual, until he realized that he’d rather not, given their new relationship status. Erik looked hopeful, and even if Charles felt like a fool around him most of the time, he really couldn’t say no. “Sure, why not?”

Erik leaned in closer as if to say something, but then he smiled and shook his head nevermind. “Later, Charles.” He walked away, leaving Charles feeling bereft and slightly breathless.

* * *

 

All morning, he thought about Erik, excited for class to be over and half-terrified that it would too soon. He could barely concentrate on the lecture, and when he looked down at his notes, it had all been nonsense scribbles. ‘Why me?” he had written in the corner of his page. He scrubbed those all off with an eraser.

He’d always been aware of Erik. It was a small school, and Erik was easily one of the most handsome boys in his year. There had been a bit of drama between him and his previous girlfriend last year, but they seemed to be on civil terms now.

The lunch bell rang. Charles dawdled as he gathered his things and waited for everyone to file out before exiting the classroom. He found Erik waiting for him in the hall, casually readjusting his gloves.

“Ready to go?”

“Yeah.”

He wasn’t sure what to make of Erik, to be honest. Charles was half in love with him already, and it was still at that awkward stage where everything was complicated and new. They were dating, certainly, but they’d never called it _dating_. At the back of his mind, he knew that Erik was his last shot at true love before his birthday, and he was terrified that whatever this thing was between them wouldn’t even get to that point.

They settled at a shady spot in the grass and Charles brought out his lunch. He still felt a little self-conscious eating in front of Erik because it meant taking his mask off, but it was getting easier and easier to be barefaced around him. Erik had never commented on Charles’ nose, or stared too long, or done all the things that Charles has always feared other people would do.

Erik played guitar and sang something soft, and something in Charles’ heart gave in to the warmth that was wrapping around it.

“You were wrong, though,” Charles said when he was done, “That was definitely better than anything I could have heard in the concert.”

A cold breeze ruffled the trees. Erik reached over and combed back Charles’ wayward hair with his fingers. “God, you’re gorgeous. Has anyone ever told you how beautiful your eyes are?”

* * *

 

_Has anyone ever told you how beautiful your eyes are?_

Charles went home that day feeling like fireworks were exploding in his chest. He inspected his face in the mirror and traced over his eyelids, his eyelashes. They were a stunning shade of blue, weren’t they? Large and doll-like, as Erik said. Expressive, as Erik said.

“Beautiful,” Charles whispered, as Erik said.

His fingers touched the edge of his surgical mask, untucking the straps from his ears, but even the sight of his pig nose couldn’t detract him from his joy.

 

* * *

 

“I’m going to tell you a secret,” Erik murmured as they lay on the grass side by side. It was high noon, but the clouds were covering the sky. Charles wondered if it was going to rain.

“I’m honored, Erik. What is it?”

“I turn into a dog when a girl touches me.”

Charles laughed, but Erik looked entirely serious. “Really now?”

“Hadn’t you always wondered about the gloves? Or that I’m always in long-sleeves?”

“I’d always thought you were cold,” Charles frowned, “or you had a thing about germs.”

“My family’s cursed. The usual. Except we haven’t exactly figured out how to break it yet. All male descendants literally turn into animals when they have skin contact with the opposite sex.”

Charles was at a loss. “Oh. I’m sorry.”

“It’s no big deal, I guess. At least I’m a doberman and not a chihuahua. And I always change back in a little while. It’s only a minor inconvenience now.”

“It must have been hard with Magda,” Charles blurted out, and then immediately regretted it.

“...It was,” Erik admitted. “But it wasn’t anything we could help.”

“I guess I could understand. I’d hate to not be able to touch someone I lo—really liked.”

“Yeah.”

It grew quiet, almost awkwardly so. Charles wanted to reach out and take Erik’s hand.

“I, um, I have a secret too.”

“Yeah?”

“I got caught stealing from a witch and now I have,” he poked the tip of his nose, ”this.”

“Wow.”

“Now I have to do something impossible before my next birthday before it becomes permanent.”

“Which is what, exactly?”

 _Find true love._ “I don’t know. It was really vague. I’ll probably stay like this forever,” Charles remarked sadly.

“Hey,” Erik tapped Charles’ nose. “For the record, I still think you’re cute as hell.”

“Incidentally, that’s also where I come from.”

Erik laughed loudly. “And funny too.” Charles laughed with him, and it was so natural to reach out and grasp Erik’s hand.

Erik pulled away, and Charles’ heart shrank, only to grow twice as large when Erik peeled his glove away to twine their fingers together, skin on skin.

* * *

One day, Charles looked into the mirror and found that he'd been smiling without realizing it. He looked the same as he ever was, but he felt different, somehow. As if something inside him shifted, and happiness was a glow that was making a home in his eyes.

That day, he left the mask at home, and went to school with the smile still on his face.

* * *

 

“So…” Raven drawled as they walked to class together. “You and Erik are getting pretty serious, huh?”

Charles ducked his head, but unfortunately without his mask he couldn't hide his smile. “Yes? And?”

“Ohhhh I knew it!” She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed so hard he could scarcely breathe. “I’m so excited, Charles! On the path to true love and all.”

“Do you think?”

“Totally! He looks so in love with you, you know.”

“I...I think it’s too early to tell, really.”

“Aw, come on. Anyone with two eyes can see. And you’ve got _such_ beautiful eyes, Charles!” Raven teased, quoting what he’d told her Erik had said. She softened her hug. “You look really happy though.”

“I do?”

“You do.”

“I like who I am when I’m with him. He tells me how brilliant I am all the time. That I’m amazing. It’s really flattering.”

“You _are_ amazing. Who’s the only one who can recite in Shaw’s class without fear of dismemberment?”

“You’re exaggerating.”

“Who stood up for Suzy when Cain was picking on her?”

Charles let out a disbelieving snort. “And got beaten in the process? Me?”

Raven persisted. “And who’s on the honor roll right now? Graduating early? Spends the weekends aiding the local vet?”

“...Me?”

“See,” Raven said. “Gosh, Charles. Erik’s just telling you what everyone already knows.”

* * *

Epilogue

—

Charles tucked himself into the curve of Erik’s body as they sat together in the park, watching ducks swim in the pond.

“I think I’m fine with my nose now,” he said noncommittally. “I couldn’t care less if I was ugly, because somehow my friends like me and you like me, and I want to be valued for my brain, not my face.”

“I hardly think you’re ugly. And I’d love you even if you didn’t have a nose.”

“What if I had a trunk?”

“That too.”

“Might make kissing a little awkward though.” Charles grinned as Erik kissed his forehead. “But I’d love me even if I had a trunk too. I would.” As he said it, he realized how true it was, how deeply in his core he felt it. And the magic in him bloomed like a dream finally realized.

“Huh,” Erik said, once the curse lifted and the other boy looked entirely human. Charles leaned over the edge of the pond to look at his face and trace the new shape of his nose, awestruck.

“At least it’s not a trunk,” he said, dumbfounded, curling back into Erik’s warmth. Erik laughed again and kissed him as warmly as he’d always done, curse or not.

Over the distance, Emma blew smugly at her manicure. 


End file.
